1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to custom ordered furniture and the construction and packaging of such furniture for shipment and storage. More particularly, the invention relates to fully upholstered, ready-to-assemble furniture which may be custom ordered by a consumer, packaged by the seller for shipment to the consumer by a parcel delivery service, and then assembled by the consumer from the packaged components.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ready-to-assemble furniture is furniture which is packaged for shipment and storage in disassembled form, with assembly to be done by the consumer or end user. Examples of existing ready-to-assemble non-upholstered furniture include bookcases, television stands, and simple chairs and benches. Mass merchandized, ready-to-assemble furniture is expected to be rather less expensive to the consumer than comparable pre-assembled furniture or to have distinctive functional features generally not available with its pre-assembled counterpart.
The genre of ready-to-assemble furniture packaged for mass merchandizing sale and home delivery has generally been limited to pieces of furniture which are utilitarian or hard-surfaced. Additionally, when a piece of furniture includes a long dimension, such as the side walls of a tall entertainment center or the front and rear walls of a sofa, it is limited in a shipping capacity by the long straight boards involved in its construction, such that the article of furniture cannot be shipped by a parcel delivery service without incurring additional and expensive charges. For instance, United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) presently has shipping limits that, when exceeded, subject the retailer or consumer to additional charges for “particularized delivery.” Specifically, for less expensive non-particularized delivery, packages should only weigh up to 150 pounds, should only be up to 130 inches in length and girth combined, and should only be up to 108 inches in length. Also, packages cannot have any side over 60 inches in length without incurring additional charges. Oversize packages containing furniture with a long dimension (over 108 inches in length or part of a length and girth combination of over 130 inches in length) require special pricing and dimensional weight calculations.
The special pricing not only adds cost to the furniture, but it also delays shipping times and forces the consumer to wait longer for delivery of the furniture. As such, prior ready-to-assemble furniture does not satisfy the need for fully upholstered or other types of ready-to-assemble furniture having a long dimension which may be custom ordered by the consumer and delivered to the household of the consumer by a parcel delivery service using non-particularized delivery.
What is needed is ready-to-assemble furniture of high quality and stable construction which may be packaged in a compact, easily storable and transportable manner, for easy shipment via existing, non-particularized home delivery channels.